As vaccines roll out to people in the 1A priority group, local health workers are waiting for state officials to define who would be in the 1B and 1C groups.
Several hundred doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine have been distributed to people working in healthcare and emergency response roles. The immunization requires two doses of the vaccine, delivered 21 days apart. The vaccines have been offered to employees at both Memorial Hosptial of Sweetwater County and Castle Rock Medical Center due to the close proximity workers at both facilities can find themselves in with other employees. CRHD has also distributed vaccinations to residents at Mission at Castle Rock.
While the vaccine is being offered to those in that 1A group, it doesn’t mean they’re being mandated to receive it. Regardless, according to Kim White, the incident commander for COVID-19 at MHSC, fire fighters and emergency medical workers have especially responded well to the opportunity to receive a vaccine. In total, the county received 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, most of which were distributed to MHSC, with smaller amounts going to CRHD and Sweetwater County Health.
So far, the first sets of immunizations have not produced any severe side effects on those receiving it.
The vaccine represents the first signs that the pandemic has an expiration date. That date may be much later in the future because the major milestone in easing social distancing and other health requirements is at least 80% of the county’s population having either been vaccinated or contracting the disease and recovering from it. According to Dr. Stachon, there have been more than 2,900 reported cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic started earlier in the year, with only a few hundred people having received the vaccine. The total population of Sweetwater County is 42,343 according to 2019 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
That immunization number will only increase as the vaccines become more widely available to people beyond priority groups. David Caplan, director of communications for Genesis Alkali, said the company hopes it will be able to offer a vaccine to its employees.
“Genesis Alkali employees have demonstrated support for measures put in place to protect themselves, their families and their co-workers from COVID,” Caplan said. “The company will strongly encourage all employees to get vaccinated as soon as it is possible. When the vaccine becomes available to our workforce we hope to offer it through our on-site medical facility.”
While the number of infections has declined slightly, Sweetwater County is still has one of the top three highest transmission rates in the state, with the percentage of positive tests conducted reported at 17.4% as of Monday. While other counties are receiving relaxed variations on their health order mandates, Dr. Stachon said Sweetwater County won’t be one of them.
“I can guarantee (Wyoming State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist) won’t consider it,” she said.
Stachon said she’s received requests from bar owners throughout the county to relax closing times for New Year’s Eve, which is typically one of the busiest nights of the year for area bars. While Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspie and Sheriff John Grossnickle have previously called health orders unenforceable, Green River Police Chief Tom Jarvie said any establishments wouldn’t immediately get reported to Erramouspie’s office.
“Our practice in handling any health order violation is to advise the party of the order, it’s requirements, why it is in place and the potential consequences for not obeying it,” Jarvie said. “If the only violation is of the health order and the party involved refuses to comply, we document the facts in a report and forward it to the county attorney for a charging decision. If the county attorney chooses to prosecute, they would issue a subpoena for the party violating the order ... regarding New Year’s Eve, the party charged would most likely be the business owner.
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